I introduced my kids to Bone this week. If you are unfamiliar with Jeff Smith's charming, multiple award-winning epic, you should fix that. If you prefer a color version, or don't want to bite it off all in one 1,300 page chunk, you might try the Scholastic printing. Personally, I think Jeff's artwork is so clean and masterfully done, the original black and white work is superior. But then, I'm a cartoonist snob.
Before reading the book, I introduced my kids to the cast, via a collection of action figures I knew I kept around for a reason. My daughter decided pretty quickly that Thorn (below, left) was her favorite. Not surprising, since Thorn more closely resembles the standard Disney-style princess than the other characters. My son, on the other had, instantly took to Gran'ma Ben (below, right). One can only assume because he loves his grandmothers, and he sometimes likes to throw me an unpredictable curveball.
Surprisingly, I couldn't find a good "feature shot" of Thorn to reference. I'd have thought, with 1,300 pages of story, Jeff would have at some point drawn a of "definitive" Thorn image -- the type you'd plaster on posters or PR images or whatnot. But I was not able to find it. So I found a less than ideal reference, and ended up breaking from his style a bit (mostly in the face design) to make it work for me. I'm happy with the result, but would rather have captured the cartoony charm typical of the Bone series.
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| Thorn and Gran'ma Ben from Bone |
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